Loving Kindness Meditation

Develop empathy, emotional intelligence and increase your sense of happiness by sending love and feelings of kindness to others and yourself. Also send the message to somebody you may have difficulty with, and slowly rewire how your brain responds when you think about this person.

Transcript

Sitting comfortably with your back upright and straight choosing either a soft downward gaze or allowing your eyes to close gently bringing your awareness within your body firstly noticing those points of contact your body's making where you're sitting your feet making contact with the ground notice where your hands are resting allow your awareness to move to your shoulders and to remove tension physically roll your shoulders upwards and back and down and similarly with your jaw keep your lips together but allow your jaw to drop slightly open allow your awareness now to move to your breath and just notice the rise and fall of your chest as you breathe I'd like to invite you now to do a loving kindness meditation think of somebody in your life who needs some extra love and kindness try and create an image of that person and each time you exhale send them a silent message may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well and try and accompany this message with feelings of love and kindness towards this person may you be happy may you be well and you may wish to put a little smile on your face as you send this message may you be happy may you be well still sending your message to the person who needs this love and kindness right now I'd like to invite you now to extend this meditation and send the message to the people you're close to slowly cycle through them picking one creating an image of that person sending them the message may you be happy may you be well and when you're ready moving on to the next person sending feelings of love and kindness with each message may you be happy may you be well and still sending the message to the people you're close to and try and keep the smile on your face as you do this may you be happy may you be well and still sending feelings of love and kindness along with each message I'd like to invite you now to think of somebody you have difficulty with and send the message to them knowing that this is not about forgiveness this is just to create peace and calm in your mind when you think about this person instead of creating the usual negative emotions that arise and ultimately are unhealthy so this is for your benefit think on this person now create their image and send them the message may you be happy may you be well you're creating peace and calm in your mind when you think on this person may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well I'd like to invite you now to send the message to yourself it's important that we love and care about ourselves in order to be the best we can for other people so in your mind now repeat may I be happy may I be well and try and cultivate feelings of love and kindness towards yourself I be happy may I be well and still keep that smile on your face I be happy may I be well just one last minute sending the message of love and kindness to yourself allowing those words to gently fade and I'd like to invite you to finish with a gratitude practice think of somebody who is important to you and feel how grateful you are to have them in your life think about this now for the next minute still smiling and gently bringing your awareness back to your body once again just noticing your breathing watching the rise and fall of your chest noticing once more the depth of your breath the rate of your breathing allowing your awareness to just notice the points of contact your body's making noticing again where you're sitting your feet on the ground where your hands are resting gently bringing your awareness now outside of your body noticing sounds around you becoming aware of where you're sitting and when you're ready gently reawaken your body maybe moving fingers and toes very slightly and in your own time gently open your eyes you